Enmity
by Sparkly Faerie
Summary: Fourshot. "Listen, you cow, I don't like you." He said rather abruptly. She gave a shrug. "I know you don't. I really don't give a toss what you think of me." "Feeling's mutual." JPLE, LilyxSirius friendship. Seventh year. T for language. Complete.
1. Enmity

**Hey all.**

**Just a little something that popped into my head when I was cooking dinner tonight. It demanded to be written before I forgot it!**

**I don't know if this is going to be a oneshot or a twoshot. Or even a threeshot. It has the potential to stand on it's own or be part of a short series. For now I'm going to label it a oneshot, but if I get enough positive feedback I may do a second one.**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: <strong>I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it. All rights to Harry Potter and affiliated products belong to Ms J.K. Rowling and the other proper entities.

**Summary:** "Listen, you cow, I don't like you." He said rather abruptly. She gave a shrug. "I know you don't. I really don't give a toss what you think of me." "Feeling's mutual."

**Rating:** T

**Genre:** Romance

**Warnings:** There's quite a bit of coarse language.

**Timeline:** Early November, 1977. Seventh year.

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><p><strong>Enmity<strong>

A pale hand brushed a fiery curl behind her ear as Lily Evans flipped a page of the huge potions tome she was so completely focused on. Normally, she did her reading in the Common Room or the Library, but the clear autumn day had beckoned her out into the quad between the east and west wings of the castle; she sat on the stone bench at the base of the lone tree in the enclosed courtyard, enjoying the feel of the sunlight filtering through the leaves and dappling her hair and skin.

There were other students outside; most of them were first years enjoying the lazy Friday afternoon, with a few older students dotted in between. There were some sixth and seventh years who were rushing through the area to get to their next classes, but Lily was one of the few fortunate enough to have a timetable that gave her a mostly-free Friday. She'd been to her two classes—Potions and Charms—earlier in the day, and intended on getting her homework finished that night so that her Saturday could be free after watching the first Gryffindor versus Slytherin Quidditch match. Luckily she didn't have much of it. She had a sneaking suspicion that the teachers were saving up the piles for the winter break in six weeks.

She was just making a note on a piece of parchment when a shadow fell across her page, prompting her to look up and acknowledge the person who had been standing on the periphery of her vision for the last half an hour. She suspected that he'd been contemplating the best way to approach her without getting castrated for his efforts. A ginger eyebrow travelled up her forehead as she regarded her visitor. She removed her bag from the other side of the bench, setting it on the grass at her feet as she nodded to the now-vacant seat when he hesitated. "Sit down."

He deposited himself gracefully onto the stone bench beside her and looked at her with an expression that bordered on the line between frustration and outright anger. "Evans."

She regarded the dark-haired boy with a level expression. "Hello." She tucked a wayward strand of hair back behind her ear from where it had fallen when she'd shifted to free the seat for him. "Something I can do for you, arsehole?"

"Listen, you cow, I don't like you." He said rather abruptly; she saw the barely contained wince as he insulted her. Last year she'd have smacked him for talking to her like that.

She gave a shrug. "I know you don't. Actually, I'd think less of you if you did. And, to be honest, I really don't give a toss what you think of me."

Anger won out—it painted itself across his face in the form of a scowl, pursed lips, and eyes that silently shot daggers at her. "Feeling's mutual." He spat. "But I'm sick of your games."

Her expression morphed into a wry smile. "I have no idea what games you're talking about." She told him. "I've always considered myself rather forward, actually."

"Don't bullshit me." He snapped. "I've watched you, all term. Both of you. You spent months telling everyone you weren't interested in him, and now you're _flirting_ with him. Every day. It's driving me mental. What the hell are you up to, Evans?"

Her eyebrows shot up again. "Wait, what's this?" Her wry smile twisted into an expression of amusement. "You're on my case for changing my mind about someone?" She laughed; the sound carried across the courtyard and startled a few older kids who knew her history with him and his friends. "Who I flirt with is none of your business." She dismissed the topic. "If that's all you came for, kindly piss off and leave me alone."

He growled, clenching his fists. "You're a bitch, Evans."

She cocked her head to the side, her face smug as her hair tumbled over her shoulder, shining a reddish-gold like the autumn leaves above their heads. Her brilliant green eyes sparkled as she identified something burning in his eyes; she'd seen it often enough in other people—and felt it often enough herself—to know it on sight. "What? You jealous?" She teased.

"Whatever you reckon." He spat, standing up and starting to stalk away. She appraised his form from behind; tall, broad shouldered, shaggy, dark hair. It was a pity that she was so interested in someone else; his good looks—though not completely lost on her (she wasn't blind, after all)—didn't seem to stand out so glaringly to her. He was just another arsehole in a school full of wankers.

She called out to him when he was about five feet away. "Oi! Black!"

He half turned, his eyes hard as he waited for her to speak again.

She grinned, packing up her things to relocate to the Library. "You might want to get used to me hanging around and stealing his attention from you." She told him conversationally. "I plan on saying yes when Potter asks me to Hogsmeade next week."

Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she laughed as she brushed past him and entered the castle.

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><p><strong>Hmm… oneshot? Or twoshot? I don't know.<strong>

**I'm going to say this now, to avoid any confusion: SIRIUS IS NOT IN LOVE WITH JAMES. He is merely annoyed that he thinks Lily is playing with his best friend; when Lily teased him about being jealous, she meant that he was jealous that his best friend had started (or was about to start) spending time with someone else.**

**Anyway, please review. :D I love feedback of all kinds.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Sparky Faerie**


	2. Antipathy

**Hey!**

**I only got three reviews for the last one, but since the general consensus so far is that I continue it, I did up a sort of mini-storyline. So, I made up my mind! It's going to be a **_**four**_**shot! I'm not going to label it as a full-length story, since I already have one of those going.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: <strong>I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it. All rights to Harry Potter and affiliated products belong to Ms J.K. Rowling and the other proper entities.

**Summary:** "Listen, you cow, I don't like you." He said rather abruptly. She gave a shrug. "I know you don't. I really don't give a toss what you think of me." "Feeling's mutual."

**Rating:** T

**Genre:** Romance

**Warnings:** None, really. A few bad words, maybe.

**Timeline:** Early November, 1977. Seventh year.

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><p><strong>Antipathy<strong>

Lily sat with the team the next morning, absentmindedly twirling a lock of her hair around a long, pale finger as she and everyone else tried to convince James to eat. She was distantly aware of Sirius shooting her sharp little glares across James every few minutes; she could see Remus and Peter looking between the two of them curiously. However, she was far too interested in making sure the Quidditch Captain managed to eat a proper breakfast before he had to go down to the pitch for the game to pay any attention to it.

"You really should eat, Potter." She was telling him.

"Not hungry." He shook his head so vigorously that his glasses almost flew off his face. He stopped and pushed them back up his nose.

"Yes, you are." She told him firmly, reaching over and grabbing the plate of bacon on his other side. She pulled it over to her as Sirius made a noise of protest and tried to snatch it back. "You're just too nervous to _realise_ that you're hungry. Once you get out on the pitch you'll wish you'd eaten."

"She's right." Remus remarked mildly. "How many times have you come from a game complaining that you were starving?"

Lily, who was buttering four slices of bread, slapped Sirius's hand away from the plate of bacon when he reached across James for it. She began to load two of the pieces of bread with bacon, egg and cheese, pressing the lids onto the sandwiches and cutting them in half before dumping them on James's plate. "Eat." She commanded, in a no-nonsense sort of tone.

"I'll just be sick." He protested.

"Humour me." Her voice was sugary sweet as she tried to coax him into it. "If you don't eat your blood sugar could drop—that's really dangerous when you're flying." She managed a concerned expression. "We wouldn't like to see you get dizzy out there today. You could get hurt."

The action was robotic—he reached for one of the sandwich halves and lifted it to his mouth, taking a small bite. There was a collective sigh of relief around the Gryffindor Quidditch team as he apparently developed a taste for food again; both sandwiches and two goblets of pumpkin juice disappeared in under three minutes. Lily couldn't help the smug grin that stretched across her face, looking over at Sirius's annoyed grimace—it had always been his job to convince James to eat before a match, and he'd never achieved it in such a short time.

James didn't notice.

Remus and Peter did.

All too soon, the team were standing to head down to the pitch. Lily smiled and wished them luck, before turning to her own breakfast, and two very confused faces and one outright angry one. "What?" She asked mildly, spreading strawberry jam over a piece of toast.

"Why didn't you just give him a 'good luck' snog?" Sirius snarled. "You would have looked less like a slag."

Lily looked offended—Remus was shaking his head in exasperation, covering his face with a hand. Peter was cowering behind his bowl of porridge.

"_Excuse_ me?" She hissed at him over the empty seat that James had just occupied, her eyes narrowing to slits.

Sirius's voice came out in a mocking falsetto. "'You really should eat, Potter'." He imitated (rather badly). "'We don't want to see you get hurt, Potter'. 'Good luck out there today, Potter'. 'Drag me into a broom closet and have your wicked way with me, Potter'—"

"If you don't shut your bloody mouth this very instant," Lily growled, fingering her wand, "I'll hex it off."

"I'll say what I want, you bloody cow—"

"That's enough, Sirius." Remus sighed, putting his other hand out in a gesture that he back off. "You've made your point."

Lily huffed and returned to her toast, taking a savage bite. "You're a prick, Black." She hissed at him, ignoring Remus's groan. "Just because Potter has a girl who's interested enough in him to want more than a quick romp in a broom closet and you don't—"

"Oh." Sirius cut her off. "Oh, is that what this is?" He scoffed. "You're _interested_ in him, are you? But you don't even call him by his name."

"He doesn't call me by _my_ name, either." Lily pointed out.

"Guys—"

"What? He has to make all the first moves?" Sirius demanded. "In case you hadn't noticed, Evans, he's always been making the moves. If you're really _interested_ in him, why don't you make a few of your own?"

"Padfoot—"

"I make plenty of moves." She snarled. "I just never make them in front of _you_."

"Lily—"

"Shut up, Remus." They both ordered him, simultaneously, turning back to glare at each in tandem.

"I don't have to put up with this." Lily sneered, collecting her Gryffindor flag and scarf from under the table. "You have _no_ idea what Potter and I talk about on rounds, Black. And you can't even use the invisibility cloak as a means of saying you've been able to spy on us, since Potter always has it with him when we patrol." She glared at his shocked expression. "Oh, yes, he told me about the cloak. _And_ the map that you got confiscated last year." She turned on her heel and stalked past him, down toward the doors leading to the entrance hall.

A few paces down she stopped, turned, and marched back up to them. "And that snog you were talking about?" Her voice was suddenly airy and dangerously sweet. "I just might do it after the match."

With that final comment, she turned, again, and stalked out of the Hall, the sight of the three very bemused expressions on the boys flashing in her mind and making her laugh.

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><p><strong>I'm not going to label them Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc, etc, because they're not strictly chapters. And, in case you haven't noticed yet, the titles describe the relationship between Sirius and Lily. The LilyJames relationship is **_**kind of **_**playing second fiddle in these. I added James as a main character, though, because he is the cause of this friction between his two favourite people. :)**

**Poor Remus. Until things come to James's attention, he'll be the one trying to make sure they don't rip each other's throats out.**

**There will be more of James in the next one! I promise!**

**Please review? Pretty, pretty please?**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Sparkly Faerie**


	3. Acrimony

**I didn't mean for this one to be so long—it's almost twice as long as the other two. Oh well. I **_**did**_** try to cut it down, but there was no way to do it. Sigh. So much for uniformity of length.**

**Oh well.**

**I hope you enjoy this one!**

**For those of you who don't know, 'acrimony' basically means 'resentment'. I liked the fact that the last two instalments ended with 'y' (which was actually done by accident), and wanted to continue that theme. A thesaurus is my best friend, I tell you!**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: <strong>I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it. All rights to Harry Potter and affiliated products belong to Ms J.K. Rowling and the other proper entities.

**Summary:** "Listen, you cow, I don't like you." He said rather abruptly. She gave a shrug. "I know you don't. I really don't give a toss what you think of me." "Feeling's mutual."

**Rating:** T

**Genre:** Romance

**Warnings:** None.

**Timeline:** Mid December, 1977. Seventh year.

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><p><strong>Acrimony<strong>

Two months.

Well, almost. Seven weeks.

Seven weeks of being James Potter's girlfriend had flown by so unbelievably fast, Lily felt that her head was spinning with it all.

Seven weeks of Sirius Black casually ignoring her when she entered a room had put an almost permanent frown on James's face.

And Lily didn't like that.

"Smile." She whispered into his neck as she sat, curled up on his lap in an armchair in front of the fire. Sirius, Remus and Peter were about to start playing a board game of some description on the floor in front of them—Remus was laughing at Sirius and Peter, who were playing a game of tug-of-war over the board and fighting over who would set up. "He'll get used to me eventually."

James moved his head back to give her an incredulous look. She merely leant up and kissed him softly on the lips. "It's been almost two months." He murmured.

"Black still hates me for those things I said to you in fifth and sixth year." She shrugged, settling back down with her head on his chest. "If _I _was your best friend, I'd hate me too. And I'd think you were a pathetic sod for still chasing me, and quite likely would have washed my hands of you by now."

"Lucky for me you're _not_ my best friend, then." He attempted to joke, sensing her teasing.

"No." Lily mock-sighed. "Somehow I got stuck as your girlfriend. By definition, I _have_ to like you."

"Lucky me." He grinned against her hair.

"James, mate, you playing?" The couple diverted their attention to Sirius, who was looking up at his best friend from hit seat on the floor. "Game needs four."

"Er…" he hesitated for a second, casting a glance at Lily in his lap. She smiled in response and shifted onto the arm of the chair. "Sure."

"I should finish that essay for McGonagall, anyway." She announced, standing and throwing a smile to the group on the floor as James joined them. Remus and Peter returned the smile as James waved her off. Sirius pointedly looked away.

Lily heaved a heavy sigh as she dragged herself to the table where she and the boys had been sitting earlier, writing their Transfiguration essays, and brought her textbook and parchment back to the armchair by the fire. Between Lily and Remus, James had been bullied into getting all his homework out of the way in the first week of the holidays, in order to have Christmas week free of any worries about school. Peter had followed along with the idea, the combined influence of James and Remus being too much for the short boy to contend with.

Sirius had stubbornly refused to take part in the group study session, insisting that he would do it when he managed to get around to it. Lily had shaken her head at his words, knowing that the _real_ reason that he was flat-out refusing was _her_—normally, he'd have at least sat down with his mates and scratched out a few lines before complaining that the homework was useless and attempting (and usually succeeding) to distract James into doing something completely pointless. Not to say he hadn't tried to distract James—for once, he'd simply failed.

Curled up in her seat, she found her place in _Advanced Transfiguration_ and began reading the passage she'd gotten up to before they'd agreed to head down to dinner and finish the last of their homework the next day.

_In order to overcome the restrictions of Transfiguring items, Revil writes, we must learn to consider things in a more Muggle perspective. While it is undoubtedly more convenient to simply Transfigure an object into another when we require it, it still leaves the wizard/witch without whatever the Transfigured object initially was; with Transfiguration, we can only have one object at a time. What Revil suggests, by 'thinking like a Muggle', is that we simply seek to obtain a legitimate object, rather than constantly changing one object back and forth as necessary, thereby requiring less spellwork, and the ability to have both objects available should they both be needed at the same time._

She paused for a moment, considering this with a small frown, before scratching out a few lines on her parchment. Re-reading it, satisfied that she'd managed to capture the same essence as the passage in the book, she turned her attention back to her reading and skimmed a few more lines.

Her concentration didn't last long—James had his back to her, and was obviously unaware that she'd returned to the seat they'd been sharing a few minutes beforehand.

"Why do you hate Lily so much?" He quietly asked his best friend, who also had his back to her.

Her eyes shot up to find Remus about to open his mouth to alert them to her presence behind them, before she got a strange look in her eyes and put a finger to her lips. She begged him with her eyes to be silent; she wanted to hear this—she and Sirius might not be friends, but she at least wanted to get along with him for her boyfriend's sake. Remus bit his lip before giving an infinitesimal shrug and returning his attention to his friends. Peter's eyes kept going from James, to Sirius, to Lily, to James, slightly worried—Lily was privately surprised he hadn't wet himself.

"I don't hate her." Sirius shrugged, leaning over to pick up the dice.

She heard James sigh. "She's kind of convinced that you do. And, mate, you're doing an awfully good impression of it."

"I don't hate her." Sirius insisted. "I just don't particularly like her."

"Why not?" James demanded, a little petulantly.

"I just don't." Sirius shrugged. "Sorry, mate, I know she's your girlfriend and you really like her, but I can't look at her without seeing that day she screamed at you in sixth year to jump off the Astronomy Tower, among other things." Lily winced at the reminder—it had only been the first week of term, and she'd thought he was going to give her a hard time about Snape again. In actuality, he'd just wanted to ask if she had a spare quill, since Sirius had broken his when he had tried snatching it to get James's attention.

"She apologised for that, you know." James said in a small voice. "After that class."

"I don't care if she danced naked on the Head Table in the Great Hall during the Halloween Feast and apologised in _song_." Sirius's voice was almost painfully stubborn. "Whatever you say, Prongs, she hurt you a lot over the years. I'd be a rubbish best mate if I suddenly thought 'hey, she's an alright bird after all, what's a little abuse between couples?' You know me better than that."

James was quiet for a few moments; Lily chewed on her lip. She'd known all of this, and a big part of her respected him for it. He was such a good friend, and she wished _she_ had a friend like that—the girls in her dorm were all well and good, but they were fickle, and were likely to change their opinion of someone at the drop of a hat. They'd practically ostracized Marlene in fifth year when she'd accidentally told Sirius that Mary had had a crush on him, but were just as quick to accept her into the fold again when one of the Ravenclaw girls had stolen Marlene's boyfriend.

"It's not like that anymore." James finally said. "I mean, yeah, we argue every now and again, but it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be. She's really a very nice girl, Padfoot." He sucked in a breath. "I… I want this to be a serious relationship, and I want my friends to like her. Can't you just… try?"

There was a tense pause. Lily trained her eyes on the back of Sirius's head, willing him to answer.

"I can try." Sirius finally sighed. "But it's not going to happen overnight." He warned.

"Just try." James's voice was a little firmer now. "I don't want you scaring her away after it took so long for her to like me back."

"Mate, if I _could_ scare her away," Sirius's voice was jovial now, "I reckon I'd've done it by now. I reckon you're stuck with her." The four of them laughed before turning back to their game.

Ten minutes and another half an inch of parchment later, Lily quietly stood from her seat and made a show of dropping back into it—she gave a small grunt with the impact, alerting them to her presence. Sirius and James turned to look at her, the former giving a weak sort of grin, the latter absolutely beaming. "Finished?"

"Almost. It's warmer by the fire." She answered with a smile of her own. "Who's winning?"

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><p><strong>See, I promised more James, and I delivered! Though there was no interaction between Lily and Sirius, but that will happen next chapter.<strong>

**I **_**promise**_**, the next one will be nicer.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!**

**Sparkly Faerie**


	4. Brotherly

**I don't know if I like this one or not, but here's the last instalment! As the title suggests, the relationship is a lot nicer now than it was in the last three.**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: <strong>I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it. All rights to Harry Potter and affiliated products belong to Ms J.K. Rowling and the other proper entities.

**Summary:** "Listen, you cow, I don't like you." He said rather abruptly. She gave a shrug. "I know you don't. I really don't give a toss what you think of me." "Feeling's mutual."

**Rating:** T

**Genre:** Romance

**Warnings:** None.

**Timeline:** Early April, 1978. Seventh year.

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><p><strong>Brotherly<strong>

Lily clenched her eyes shut and prayed that whoever it was would just go away. She'd pulled the drapes across the window to hide when she'd first sat down—she was sitting on the sill with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. Burying her face in her knees as she stilled and the drapes settled to hide her from view, she held her breath and listened to the approaching footsteps. Hopefully whoever it was wasn't actually looking for her. She _really_ didn't want to see people right then.

She heard the footsteps approach and cease. She could sense the person on the other side of the curtains, maybe in the middle of the room. Hopefully it was just a student looking for a quiet space to study and wouldn't pull the curtains back. She could quite happily stay there all night—a glance at her watch told her she'd been there for three hours now. She supposed the professors would start looking for her soon, since she had skipped her last two classes and dinner.

She almost breathed a sigh of relief as the footsteps seemed to head out the other way and the door closed. Until she heard the intruder speak.

"I know you're in here somewhere, Lily."

She cringed. As much as she didn't want James to find her, being found by Sirius was almost worse. Holding her breath again, she hoped he'd figure he was mistaken and go away.

"I can smell your perfume. I know you're here."

"You've got a nose like a bloody dog." She sniffed weakly, not making a move to emerge from her hiding spot.

She felt the drapes move back as Sirius pulled them back to expose her. "Nice hiding spot." He said in a conversational tone. "James reckons he's checked this corridor three times over already."

Lily winced at her (soon to be ex-) boyfriend's name. "I heard him and Remus up here before." She admitted into her knees.

"Why didn't you come out?" He asked, the sounds of something scraping along the floor catching her ears.

"Be-because," she hiccupped, "the s-sooner I come out, the soon he'll br-break up with me."

"Why do you think he'd do that?"

Lily was convinced that he was toying with her before really letting her have it. She turned her head a little to glare at him from under her curtain of hair, which was all tangled and messy from rubbing up against the rough stone wall and the curtains all afternoon—he was sitting, back to front, on one of the classroom chairs, arms crossed over the backrest and his chin resting on them. "Gee, I _wonder_." She bit sarcastically, a little venom making its way into her voice. "You know _exactly_ why, Sirius. Just y-yell at me and get it over and done with."

"Yell at you for what?" His expression was open, his eyes fixed on the one bright green, bloodshot eye he could see peering at him warily through a tangled mass of ginger hair.

"For being a filthy, cheating bitch?" She pointed out as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "For leading him on and messing around behind his back? For lying to him for six months? You were _there_ today, Sirius. You _saw_ what happened."

"So you _actually_ cheated on him, then?" Sirius's voice was derisive, disbelieving. "C'mon, Lily, is that what you want us to think? Really?"

"Of course not!" Lily's voice rose shrilly as she finally jerked her head up to glare at him properly. "David asked me for help on his part of the group assignment in Defence—what was I supposed to do? Say no?" She ranted. "So we set up in a classroom and the next thing I know, he's telling me that he still loves me and he's got his tongue down my throat and he's pushed me up against the wall and—" her voice broke into an angry sob. "I told him to piss off, but he… he just kept kissing me, and he had my hands behind my back and he said that no one would ever find out, and, and that's when you and James walked in." She broke out into a fresh round of tears. "I didn't cheat on James. I would _never_ cheat on James!" Her face burrowed into her knees again as her shoulders shook.

"You know what me and James saw today?" Sirius asked a moment later. Lily stilled, half in fear, half in desperation. "We saw your ex pushing you against the wall while you tried to fight him off. We knew he was attacking you, Lily." His voice had softened. "Hey," he reached out and touched a hand to her shoulder, "look at me. C'mon."

Slowly, she lifted her head to stare at him incredulously. "You have to stop believing the worst of us." Sirius half-joked. "I dunno what you thought it looked like, but we've never seen you so angry. It was pretty clear what was going on." He took his hand back and crossed his arms on the backrest once more. "James has been worried sick about you all afternoon. I had to physically drag him away from Kent before James pounded him until he couldn't walk." He suddenly grinned. "He settled for breaking his nose."

Lily sniffled. "He's not angry at me?" She wiped at the tears in her eyes, smearing the tracks of running mascara on her cheeks.

"Of course not." Sirius's tone sobered as he stood. "C'mere." He pulled her to her feet and, taking advantage of her bewilderment, wrapped his arms around her in a hug.

Lily found that she needed that hug; she wrapped her arms around him in return and buried her face in his chest. He wasn't James, but he _had_ been a friend, since Christmastime. Until she could muster up the will to drag herself back down to Gryffindor Tower and hug James for the rest of the night, he would do.

"He loves you, you know." He murmured into her hair. "He was planning on telling you tomorrow night."

"Did he say that?" She asked in shock, blinking up at him.

He gave his trademark smirk, taking his arms away from her and wrapping one around her shoulders. "Yeah, but don't tell him I said anything. He wants it to be 'special'." He barked out a laugh. "Oh, geez, what a girl. You definitely wear the trousers in that relationship."

Lily gave a wet chuckle, wiping her tears away again and allowing him to steer her out of the classroom. "Don't tell him that."

"Promise." Sirius winked jovially at her. "So, where first? The kitchens or the Tower?"

"The Tower, I think." She sighed. "I don't think I could eat just yet anyway. I can always borrow the Cloak later."

"Rightio. Gryffindor Tower it is." He started to lead her down the corridor, his arm around her shoulder for comfort just as much as to keep her from running away.

The castle was mostly silent—most students were in their Common Rooms or were outside, taking advantage of the last light of the sunset to get a little extra leisure time before curfew. It painted the castle walls and floor orange where it spilled in from the windows, and bounced off their skin and hair. Lily fancied she saw a little halo around Sirius's head for a second, before shaking the ridiculous notion away—he was about as far from an angel as it was possible to get without being downright evil.

They reached the Fat Lady after a few minutes. Sirius dropped his arm away. "I'm gonna go find Pete. He was supposed to be searching the Library for you. James and Remus are _probably_ in the dorm, but they might be in the Common Room." He told her.

She watched him turn and take a few steps away. "Hey, Sirius?" She called out.

He paused, turning back. "Yeah?"

"Thanks."

He gave an uncharacteristically soft smile and came back to her, wrapping his arm back around her shoulders and giving a friendly squeeze. "Don't mention it. James is like a brother to me. That kind of makes you the sister I never had." He swooped down and planted a light kiss on her temple. "Just don't tell anyone. They'll think I've gone soft."

Lily beamed, touched by the sentiment, even if it was given in a flippant manner. "Not a living soul." She promised. "Until I need material for blackmail, anyway."

Sirius's laughter echoed along the hallway for a few moments before it disappeared from earshot when he went downstairs.

Lily turned back to the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Pickled figwort."

"Welcome back, dearie." The Fat Lady yawned, swinging forward to admit her.

Less than a second after she entered the Common Room, she found warm, strong arms wrapped around her. "Lily!" James breathed into her hair. "Where have you been all afternoon? I've been worried!"

"I'm fine." She was squeezing him so tightly she was surprised he wasn't complaining. She let him drag her back over to the lounge that Remus had vacated at her entrance and allowed him to drape her across his lap, leaning against his chest. "Sirius went to find Peter." She told the boys.

"I'll go help him." Remus said quickly, taking off out of the portrait hole.

"Are you sure you're okay?" James pressed, hooking a finger under her chin and tilting her face up to look at him. He took in her slightly bloodshot eyes, running makeup and wild hair.

"I'm fine." She promised. "Are… you okay?" She asked hesitantly.

He pressed her back into his chest and kissed the top of her head. "Yeah. I'm fine. Bloody pissed at Kent, but…"

"I'm sorry about that, James, I—"

"You've got nothing to be sorry for." He promised. "I know you didn't want him to kiss you. I trust you."

She gave a final sniffle and relaxed. She loved sitting with him like this when she'd had a bad day; his legs up on the lounge, hers draped across his lap and dangling just off the floor, his chin resting on the top of her head, his arms wrapped loosely around her waist and hers just resting on his chest. It was warm and comfortable, and there was something about the solid mass that James provided that made her feel secure.

She spent a few silent moments trying to berate herself for turning into one of _those girls_—the ones who turned into total emotional saps around their boyfriends—but found she just didn't have the energy. It had been an emotionally draining afternoon; if Sirius hadn't found her, she'd likely have cried herself to sleep on the windowsill.

"Hey, James?" She murmured through a yawn.

"Mmm?"

"I love you."

**- E N D -**

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><p><strong>And that's the end of the Enmity series. Like I said, I'm not too sure I'm crazy about this, but the idea struck me and wouldn't go away. And I had to toss in that little LilyJames moment at the end.**

**I'm so tired. I wrote this in the wee hours of the morning after little-to-no sleep, so I'm thinking I'm going to want to hit myself over it later when I wake up.**

**Please review and let me know what you think!**

**Thanks for reading.**

**Sparkly Faerie.**


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